The country has raised the alarm on a potential fertiliser shortage that could jeopardise the food security of billions of people worldwide, as tougher Russia sanctions are sought even amid fears of disastrous harvests next year.

The focus of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) this year has shifted from concerns over global health due to Covid-19 to food security, which many have singled out as a key topic to emerge from the conflict in Ukraine.

Even though the UN- and Turkey-led Black Sea Grain Initiative from July has helped dampen the soaring prices of Ukrainian grain and Russian fertiliser and get them out to global markets, there could be more at stake for the world if Western sanctions on Russia are left unchecked.

Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain producers and the Russian invasion has sent global prices soaring. Moscow has cast blame on Western sanctions, an assertion denounced by Washington, which says it is not targeting agricultural or humanitarian goods, AFP reports.

One McKinsey study suggests that the war in Ukraine has resulted in declining global production of wheat by 15 million to 20 million tonnes in 2022 - and possibly up to 40 million tonnes in 2023.

Meanwhile, experts warn that disruptions in fertiliser shipments could seriously impede future harvests worldwide.

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has warned that if the global community cannot prevent the issue of fertiliser scarcity from getting out of hand, the outlook for global food security next year will become “bleak” and potentially wreak havoc on rice harvests.

“If because of fertiliser (shortages), rice harvest yields experience decline or crop failure, then the welfare of two billion people is at stake - the majority of whom are in Asia,” she told reporters in New York on Tuesday.

Earlier that day, at the Global Food Security Summit cochaired by Indonesia, the US and several others, Retno called on all countries to be prudent in their actions so as not to exacerbate the food crisis.

At the end of the summit, global leaders issued a declaration calling for urgent efforts to address global food insecurity, laying out seven specific lines of action.

Among them is an acknowledgment of the need to “keep food, fertiliser and agricultural markets open and avoid unjustified restrictive measures, such as export bans on food and fertiliser, which increase market volatility and threaten food security and nutrition at a global scale”.

  - ANN